DOJ settles with Providence over civil rights violations at Newcomer Academy

The settlement comes after the DOJ already targeted the district in May for failing to properly teach English to more than 200 students, including because there was no separate period of English language development at the school. Under a previous 2018 settlement with the DOJ over Providence’s failure to properly teach multilingual students, the district was required to give newcomers two periods of English language development per day.

The DOJ ruled that Providence violated the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.

The globe previously reported that Newcomer students signed a petition asking for more English language classes, and teachers told the Globe they were concerned about the compressed timeline students found themselves in They were expected to learn a wide range of material, with some calling the school a ‘diploma mill’.

The new regulations include requirements that students receive the two periods of English language development per day, taught by ESL-certified teachers, and not by “emergency certified” teachers. The district must staff Newcomer Academy with a “sufficient” number of ESL-certified teachers by Jan. 1 — even if that means transferring them from other schools — to achieve a student-teacher ratio comparable to ESL programs at other colleges in Providence. schools.

The agreement also requires the district to provide compensatory services to students who attended Newcomer in the 2023-2024 school year and did not receive independent English language development instruction. The district must also offer training for teachers specifically aimed at educating newcomers, and must provide students with access to the same career and technical programs and special education offered to other students in Providence.

The Newcomer Academy, which opened in September 2023 as a standalone school in the Providence Career & Technical Academy building using COVID relief funds, sought to create a flexible high school for newcomers to the country who are over the age of 17 and have interrupted their education, and have little to no English language skills.

The new school – which is separate from the more traditional newcomer program elsewhere in the district – implemented a unique, staggered schedule that allowed students to attend school later in the day and for fewer hours than their peers. The scheme recognized that the students had jobs and family commitments and were at high risk of dropping out without the flexible hours. Wednesday was optional.

The DOJ said the arrangement was unacceptable. Students did not receive the required two periods per day for English language development. And because the schedule did not match bell times at Providence Career & Technical Academy, students were separated from their English-speaking peers for lunch, electives and career and technical classes offered at PCTA but not at Newcomer.

After visiting the school, federal officials expressed concern that students were “over-enrolled,” with some taking as many as 12 classes at a time.

“We have serious questions about the academic rigor of the curriculum offered at Newcomer Academy given the large number of classes in which students were enrolled at the same time,” officials said. wrote in a letter in July.

The school district denied any wrongdoing in the spring but almost immediately made changes, including adding an optional English language development class to the school day and firing the principal, Oscar Paz.

When the new school year started in September 2024, the district started revise the schedulereturning to a traditional school day and integrating the Newcomer students with their peers at Providence Career & Technical Academy for non-academic subjects such as career and technical education and lunch. Wednesday is no longer optional.

The new agreement replaces the 2018 Multilingual Learner Arrangement, which addressed the failure to properly serve students learning English across the district.

“The Providence Public School District’s failure to meet its civil rights obligations to newcomers is unacceptable,” Cunha said in a statement. “Especially in the wake of a previous 2018 civil rights agreement that addressed the school district’s inability to accommodate English language learners.”

The district must fully comply with the covenant by 2027.

“Federal law is clear: all students, including immigrant students, have the right to meaningfully participate in their district’s educational programs, and the Department of Justice is committed to enforcing that right in Rhode Island and across the entire country,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant U.S. attorney. general for the DOJ’s civil rights division.